Public Utility Workers Union has asked the Public Utility Regulatory Commission, PURC to be bold and approve higher utility tariffs that will help sustain companies providing utility to the Ghanaian public.
In response to the new utility tariffs announced by the PURC in an interview with Citi FM, General Secretary of the Union  Michael Adumatta Nyantaky said the increment is not enough to save several struggling utility providers.
He said the regulator needs to be realistic to help the utility companies make the needed impact, but rather the commission is playing politics with the utility tariffs not to offend the political authorities.
"PURC is just dancing around the problem and not really tackling the issue, as workers we are also consumers and we are affected by the increment but the reality is that are we looking at how these companies will be able to operate in a manner that will help us make the needed impact, we are doing a lot not to create any hullabaloo just to make sure that from a political angle we don't create so many issues for citizens to react, definitely the presentations that were made by both Ghana Water and PDS is not the kind of tariff that has been approved."
New utility tariffs
The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has approved an 8.01 percent and 11.7 percent increment for water and electricity tariffs respectively, effective July 2019.
At a press conference, the Executive Secretary of the Commission, Maame Dufie Ofori, highlighted the factors that have necessitated an increment in these tariffs including the dollar to cedi rate, projected inflation rate and increasing electricity and water demands.
"In arriving at this decision the PURC took into consideration several issues key among them are the following; the ECG PSP process, projected inflation rate, Ghana-US dollar exchange rate, cost of operation of utility companies and projected electricity and water demand for the 2019/2020 tariff period, as mandated by law and in compliance with the commission's tariff decision making process, extensive stakeholder consultations were held to solicit views and gather inputs for the final determination of the tariffs."
The PURC approved the increase after considering proposals from the Volta River Authority (VRA), the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo), the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Power Distribution Services (PDS) Ghana Limited, the Northern Distribution Company (NEDCo) and Enclave Power Company Limited (EPC).
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